Tiscali Film - brits in hollywood

Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais has been the biggest British comedy success of the last ten years. Now, not content with Emmys and Golden Globes for The Office and Extras, he is embarking on a film career. Last year's Ghost Town was well-received, and this week he has Jennifer Garner as his romantic interest. Upcoming projects include his bigscreen debut with Stephen Merchant as well as an adaptation of his bestselling book Flanimals.

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Russell Brand

Anyone who has read Russell Brand's biography My Bookywook will realise what an unlikely Hollywood heartthrob he has become. But having put his personal demons behind him he now looks set for a huge career. Some supporting roles have catapulted him into the mainstream, and he is soon to appear in two remakes: of Dudley Moore's Arthur and Rik Mayall's Drop Dead Fred (really). He's even landed a major role in a big budget version of Shakespeare's The Tempest.

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Dudley Moore

By the late 1970s, Dudley Moore's best days appeared behind him, but he was cast in Blake Edwards '10' opposite Brooke Shields and everything changed. He became an unlikely 'sex thimble', landed a defining role in 'Arthur', and spent the rest of the 80s in a succession of Hollywood comedies.

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Tommy Steele

The Half a Sixpence star was a household name in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, with a string of hits and live shows to his name. None other than Francis Ford Coppola picked up on this and cast him opposite Fred Astaire in his Oirish musical Finian's Rainbow. The result was a huge flop: Coppola went on to the Godfather, while Steele never worked in Hollywood again.

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Norman Wisdom

Wisdom was the comedy star in Britain in the 1950s and in a bizarre turn of events Exorcist director William Firekin cast him in a major role in his 1969 Amish musical comedy The Night They Raided Minsky's. Another huge flop and like Steele, Wisdom never worked in Holly wood again.

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Vinnie Jones

The hard man of Wimbedon's Crazy Gang became a regular Hollywood staple at the end of the 90s, appearing as a usually brutish figure in a succession of big budget films. Even though things have appeared quiet in recent times, Vinnie has no less than ten films in various stages of development and production.

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Jason Statham

Like Jones, Stahtam was a secondary player in the Lock Stock success, but went on to have extraordinary fortune in Hollywood where he is now the face of two franchises (The Transporter and Crank) and is soon to star in Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables.

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